Rob Astorino is pushing for the creation of a “Stop the Common Core” line on the ballot for the November election, but some analysts suggest it might not be the most effective way to win upstate. (TU)

Republican attorney general candidate John Cahill wants to run on that line, too. (CapNY)

Gov. Cuomo has a 35-point lead over Astorino, according to the first poll since the end of the legislative session. (WSJ)

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has settled with EmblemHealth, Inc., requiring the health insurer to reform its claims review process to make sure it’s treating mental and physical coverage in the same way. (TU)

The recent death of a New York City firefighter was the first such loss in the city in two years, but 12 firefighters around the state have died since the beginning of 2013 — eight of them due to heart attacks. (TU)

The state Gaming Commission has posted the executive summaries of casino applications, and the details are interesting. (TU)

City and county officials appeared to have made a plan to save the facade of the Clinton Avenue house that largely collapsed on Friday. (TU)

The White House has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to deal with the influx of unaccompanied immigrant children. (AP)

In hopes of stemming the tide, immigration courts are moving those cases to the front of the line, so minors could have their cases resolved and be deported within months. (NYT)

Citigroup is reportedly close to a deal to pay $7 billion to settle a probe into whether it defrauded investors on billions of dollars worth of mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. (Reuter’s)

You know how you clean out the spare room closet and in a coat pocket you find that old pair of sunglasses you’d almost forgotten you had? It’s like that, but with smallpox. (WP)

22 Responses

Andrew Cuomo may lead Astorino, but the only poll that counts is the official one done on election day.
Lots of folks were shocked when Pataki beat Mario Cuomo.
The people of NY can do it again. Anybody but Cuomo!

Smoking in a bus shelter: Not only is it against CDTA rules, in Albany it’ll soon be against the law. (TU)
This is what happens when you have cleaned up all the crime in a city. Time to move on to important matters.

EZ Pass scam – why is no one asking how the email addresses were obtained by the “phishers”? Does the word “hack” ring a bell? What’s next, my credit card number? The Thruway Authority might have amanor problem on its hands!

Regarding the EZ Pass scam: Who is to say that the scammers got the email addresses from EZ Pass? I get scams “from” businesses with which I have no relationships at all. Its common for folks to have EZ Pass, maybe the scammers just thought it would be a good cover.

And in international news…radical Islamists in Iraq have taken over a chemical plant loaded with chemical weapons (not to worry though…the weapons are a decade or more old). What?! WMDs in Irag! Story buried in the ‘Roundup’ section of the ATU. Heaven forbid should too many people read about it… Oh Yes…this was reported by the United Nations.

It’s more than “offensive and insensitive”; it is “drooling right-wing vitriol”.

If you combine this Hochul personal attack with the earlier use of a state GOP globin who went to Sandra Lee’s house (shared with the Gov.) and told the press he was paying some of their unpaid property tax, the apparent lack of momentum for Asotrino’s is understandable.

Medical pot and the 18 month startup
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With the evidence strong that medical pot can be beneficial, and with the protocols able to be agreed upon, why not speed up the implementation of the program.
Those who want to use this program will search out a similar program out of state.

Wow, Poppy. I guess the Iraq war was worth it then. How silly of us. It was clearly the media hiding the fact Iraq had WMDs all this time. They even hid it from Bush and Cheney. Now if the media would only stop hiding the fact that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were in cohoots, we really could rewrite history!

@sammy.. to answer your question, yes I would.. better to deal with the devil you don’t know and hope for a change, than to deal with the devil you do know and know no change will ever happen and eventually get worse

Regarding the WSJ story on the Marist poll that gsve Cuomo a 35 point lead over Astorino, it should be noted that there were a total of 833 respondents, of which 163 (nearly 20% of the total respondents ARE NOT EVEN REGISTERED TO VOTE!!! Exactly how accurate can that poll possibly be ? Does any other polling organIzation include unregistered people in their polling sample ? This poll’s results are a joke, and I would love to see those results with the unregistered voters removed from the sample.

Congress will consider whether to appropriate 3.7 billion to address the issue involving tens of thousands of displaced illegal aliens. Yet back at the beginning of the year the House of Reps refused to vote on a measure to appropriate 7 billion to extend emergency unemployment benefits to more than a million Americans. Where are the priorities among our elected officials.

Astorino, Astorino, Astorino, Cuomo, Cuomo, Cuomo, Astorino, blah, blah. When are you guys going to start to fully report about all of the candidates in this race? And when you report about Astorino and Cuomo, can you just tell us the truth and say that there are no significant differences between them? They are running on the same platform: to help the wealthy and the well-connected and to build up their own fortunes.

@ sammy, yes, Anyone But Cuomo. You might as well get use to Astorino, something tells me he’s going to be around for a while. Observe the economy under both the Cuomo and Obama administrations. Take a serious look and tell me if your quality of life has improved? That’s not only for you Sammy, it’s for everyone to consider. I know mine hasn’t. As a point of fact, it’s diminished considerably. It cost me a lot more only to get much less. And my wages have not maintained the escalated cost of living. Ya, go ahead and blame the 1%, but they infiltrated the Democratic party as well. So there is no guarantee there. Cuomo’s Public Service Commission allowed Nationalgrid to run amok. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

@SARATOGA 833 does not a poll make. How is it that .000000001% of the voting populous speaks for the other 99.9%? They are all a joke. Remember Dewey beats Truman? Ha.. Polls mean nothing. Election day is what counts.

@Sammy: I don’t think Teachout has a chance of beating Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
Astorino certainly can beat Cuomo in the general election. There are plenty of people who have had more than enough of Andrew Cuomo.

Did I hear Andrew correctly, that “New York doesn’t get tornadoes”? Where has he been hiding all these years? Maybe Westchester doesn’t get them but we upstaters have been putting up with them for years. He should talk to the people in Mechanicville for starters. Now he’s an expert on climate and meteorology? What a clown!!

“An update is coming from the EPA next week on concerns about diesel emissions from Amtrak engines”
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GE and Caterpillar, the 2 largest makers of engines, for railroads, are in a race to see who can bring a Liquid Natural Gas engine to market. These engines are already being tested, in conjunction with the four biggest railroads in the U.S., who are chomping at the bit, due to lowered operating and maintenance costs, as well as lowered emissions. Unfortunately they will probably be banned in New York State, due to the “environmental” threats, dreamed up by the same “environmentalists” that oppose hydrofracking. And as the commercial trucking industry is converting to CNG and/or LNG, Kuomo authorized charging millions of dollars foe charging stations for electric vehicles, but so far nothing for CNG or LNG vehicles. Kuomo is a moron, catering to self-appointed “environmentalists”, the rich and famous nut jobs, deep pocketed campaign donors, and his puppetmaster, RFK Jr. NYS is last in almost everything, and here are a couple of more that they will earn the Biggest Loser Crown for. ABC 2014, that is sane.